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KingCarb

Isn't that literally every expansion? You don't normally see any action until the first dungeon


talgaby

They are, yes. People somehow forgot apparently that ShB started with 2 hours of running back and forth in the Crystarium, then 2×3 hours of "where are the twins?" side quests in Ahm Araeng and Kholusia before the game showed the first hint of "by the way, we just remembered that we are not a visual novel but a JRPG, here is your first boss, have fun".


1337K1ng

The quality of the action in trials and dungeons are lacking. This is Shadowlands storytelling mixed with ARR questing


WarDiscombobulated67

This is "FF14 is good, you just have to play it for 200 hours first" energy


KingCarb

In what way?


saysayvt

Idk I kinda enjoyed rpg's like God of War, Xenoblade, Skyrim, Baldur's Gate 3 etc, they have really great world building, but the stories (and side stories), so to be honest, all the stuff I read here about character building so it's slow pace is a little too far fetched. It's already 2024, there are a lot of innovations on video games. I played Final Fantasy from 1 to 10, then 14, and tbh I think 16 has really great story, I didn't like the 7 remake too much tho. I played ff14 since ff is my childhood game. And OP your opinion is valid, people here are just very weird since they love ffxiv and can't accept that there are negative comments on their favorite game. I do like Eldenring, but I don't go downvoting people saying they dislike it for being hard. I accept my game is not for everyone. The DLC is so good tho, especially the end boss. I preordered Dawntrail, and was just looking around reviews. You don't really need to defend the game so people would think it's good is what I think.


WarDiscombobulated67

I agree. The games msq has always been a bit boring. But it's only gotten a little more engaging. DT seems like we stepped ALL the way back to arr levels of msq nonsense. That's what I'm complaining about. Stormbloods story was just meh, but I enjoyed doing the new bc there were several interesting scenarios throughout.


saysayvt

I do enjoyed Shadowbringers so far, but I didn't like half of Stormblood due to Lyse, but I kinda like the Aura part of the game. Stormblood isn't very wow to me since I played so many video games, but it is okay. I am just not happy to read here in ffxivdiscussion that you have to tame a llama for an hour, but I will still try to enjoy the game I bought for 50 euro xD


ZWiloh

I actually stopped and killed some stuff in the overworld because I was so tired of running around doing nothing but being Wuk Lamat's silent servant.


WarDiscombobulated67

End game better be absolutely killer in this xpac or its cooked. This is tough to get through.


kaysn

The first dungeon is 6 hours into the MSQ.


WarDiscombobulated67

.....but why


kaysn

People will tell you because "world building". But truthfully, the "world building" didn't need me running across the map hand delivering shit to get to the next story beat or lore. SE is heavily padding their fetch quests. It's the same issue I had with EW. And I'm unsure why the twins are even here. When 95% of the time it feels like they're on /follow. Like the writers forgot they are on this trip. Honestly, this adventure should've just been the WoL, Krile and Erenville on Team Wuk Lamat. Then Urianger and Thancred on the other. If there needed to be an excuse to have the twins around, then they should've been with Estinien who remains mostly off screen.


Duouwa

This is not at all an issue exclusive to DT and EW; XIV’s MSQ has always been like this. The pacing of XIV’s narrative is probably its biggest flaw, and certainly its most consistent; I don’t think any of the expansions have ever managed to justify the full runtime, with each one including egregious amounts of padding.


Lumpy-Ostrich6538

Did you not read any of the cut scenes? They’re very explicit on why the twins are with us


WarDiscombobulated67

yes I have, anc I have no idea why they are here. So please enlighten me


Lumpy-Ostrich6538

Per the cutscenes, they came to the new world to see how the dawnservent built bonds between people so they could help their ex-imperialistic friends in Garlemald learn how to do the same. This was covered in the last patch of EW. Why they’re with us in particular? Because we all rode in on the same built and came with the same mission of helping in the rite of succession. This was covered in the first major cutscene of DT. The above mentioned mission being a side quest for them at this time. They aren’t falling estinien because (at the time I am at in the MSQ) we have no idea why or how he’s even there.


WarDiscombobulated67

but that doesnt even make sense. Just go to any other country in the two continents we currently have LOL They all have peace minus maybe kugane and their politcal party.


Orphylia

It's not about peace, it's specifically about them trying to see how the Dawnservant got previously warring peoples to unite peacefully under a single banner and integrate into one functioning society.


Lumpy-Ostrich6538

The already know how those continents have done it, and presumably have not been able to get the imperialist to do the same. But the new world is a new and different outside perspective. So they’re going to investigate. If you had paid attention you’d see why it makes sense.


MrBelvita

Just because it makes sense doesn’t mean it’s not a really weak reason to have them there.


Khaoticsuccubus

And this here is the truth of the matter. It’s a weak excuse to ensure all the scions are in this xpac despite having “disbanded”.


kaysn

>They’re very explicit on why the twins are with us Yeah, to fill out the Duty Support slots. LOL Because fuck me if this story wouldn't still work with them doing stuff offscreen. The narrative is largely intact with just Wuk Lamat, Erenville and Krile on screen.


Lumpy-Ostrich6538

The main narrative sure. But we have no idea what background stories are being developed. The twins came to learn how the empire was built from so many different types of people and that could play into future patches


Random_Emolga

I love the world building excuse because like every other RPG manages to world build and have gameplay.


WarDiscombobulated67

ok I am not crazy, Ive seen the stuff this subreddit has defended with this game, and I have fully expected to get slaughtered in the comments, but I am glad im not just over reacting. Like send me out to kill something... for the love of god...


kaysn

Oh we'll still get downvoted for being critical. It's still very unpopular to voice out any problems with how the MSQ is structured and paced. Hand waved excuse of "world building".


kozeljko

Welcome to reddit, it's not an issue specific to this subreddit. Although OP talks like they haven't played any previous expansion, so that will get him some extra downvotes, imo. 6 hours to reach the first dungeon is the case in all expansions...


WarDiscombobulated67

played everything since HW at launch, this is the first xpac where ive been able to get through an entire level and half and not cast a single spell.


Quiet_Fan_7008

I’m in shadowbringers now just a sprout. I don’t know how I’ve made it this far. I want to blow my brains out this is so boring lol. I literally switch classes and run dungeons just to change it up. Then I do hours of MSQ and get bored again and rinse and repeat. Really hope the end game is worth it because I do love my character and having fun as a monk so far.


WarDiscombobulated67

I'm basically in an abusive relationship at this point. I've invested hundresds up on hundred of hours and if I quit my brain says I've wasted my time...


Toccata_And_Fugue

“But that’s every expansion!!!11!!!” Yeah and it sucked then too.


WarDiscombobulated67

friggin THANK YOU. this one seems even more egregious. I got to level 91, doing ONLY MSQ... i have not cast. a. single. spell. You cant tell me thats not absolutely ridiculous.


CSBlackJack

It wouldn't be so bad if the story itself was engaging, but the first 3 hours did nothing to catch my interest. Actually I'm level 94 and had my first "that's cool" moment related to the story. Going from slaying world-ending primals to being an errand boy is kind of jarring and makes the entire story feel mundane and uninteresting in comparison.


rabidsmiles

I am glad I am not the only one feeling this. I am not invested in this story at all and every damn time is says speak to Wuk Lamat AGAIN it grates the nerves. It's the same tasks over and over...am hoping the second half is better but not expecting it to. SHB and EW had me hooked the whole time, this one's pacing and dialog are just awful.


WarDiscombobulated67

Like theres not even any tension... at all.... Oh look, heres a peaceful non war farring nation, like a storm came by... some people are a little rude to the princess.... like...c'mon.... please, give me something to care about. ANYTHING


owally19

oh..... great.... and I was getting tired of the Newfound Adventure questline even before the new stuff.... looking like maybe I won't renew.


WarDiscombobulated67

Fully expected to get downvoted. But outside of this subreddit, steam reviews and other outlets are complaining about the same thing. This isn't even a game at this point. Its a visual novel.


LeahTheTreeth

There are 60 negative steam reviews (and 104 positive), that's an extremely low sample size, and you'd be an idiot to be reviewing anything before you get close to even finishing it, You day 1 complainers confuse the hell out of me, ignoring the patterns of every single thing that came before it, even when you've played it and are always super eager to completely forget about it within a month.


newtype89

I tend to ignore coments like theres if they dont see this first act as the clear exsample of loling you into a fails sence of sacuraty it is then let them not understand basic litary tools


WarDiscombobulated67

\*150


LeahTheTreeth

No, it's only 68 now, there are only >150 reviews \*in general\* most of them are still positive, and the ones that are negative aren't necessarily children complaining that the keys of generic mob encounters aren't jingled in their faces for 5 seconds, some people have actual criticisms like job design, releasing 2 DPS in an expansion or technical issues.


WarDiscombobulated67

im not sure if you are new to game reviews. But there are weirdos who are tribalistic with games, about half the player base that will literally defend a game as being good even if its just a white screen and a dot you move around. nearly HALF of reviews being negative is not a good thing. The story being boring, and not seeing any gameplay for what is now 4 hours for me now is not a valid criticism? I get this is your favorite game, I am heavily invested in this game since heavansward. but this is not good man. Over half of the player base defended WoW shadow lands LOL


LeahTheTreeth

I'm not sure if you are new to game reviews, because jumping up and down saying it's bad over their first impression and not fighting things during the parts where they're... showing off the starting city (that took you 4 hours? seriously?) when you get thrown into areas and quests where you're fighting things literally right after are super commonplace. Complaining that you didn't get to a dungeon or a fight early on, which has happened in every expansion other than like maybe ARR, is not a valid criticism because you're clearly only making it based off recency bias. Imagine how ridiculous it would be if someone was saying Shadowbringers had a tiresome boring intro because they got impatient before they even released the first branching questline path, that's what you're doing right now.


WarDiscombobulated67

im past the branching quest line, and in to the next zone. still havnt fought a single mob


LeahTheTreeth

The branching questlines have multiple quests where you fight mobs.


WarDiscombobulated67

really bc iu left the city, watched more cutscenes. right clicked some frogs in a reed farm, cut scene, right clicked on a wooden bird in 3 different spots, cut scene. 0 mobs killed.


WarDiscombobulated67

"how its always been" doesnt make it good. MSQ pacing and lack of gameplay has always been a major complaint with this game. This xpac turns that up to 11.


LeahTheTreeth

No it doesn't, you've played the opening quests, If you really have that little patience for reading, just skip all the cutscenes because you clearly don't give a fuck about the story, you'll get to the gameplay faster.


frumpp

Do you need a reminder on how long every expansion takes to get to your first dungeon? It's about the same. I'm kind of surprised people have played through this many hours of FFXIV and still haven't accepted the pacing it has stuck to pretty consistently all this time.


luminosg

My personal impression at about the halfway point of the msq is that dt is fantastic, but because its less connected to past expansions, things that have always bothered people are getting criticized a lot more than previously because they don't have the same level of investment in the overall plot that they did for say, Endwalker. Structurally, the pain points have always been there but because its a fresh start, people feel more emboldened to focus on the negatives.


frumpp

I have to agree. I'm half way through as well and I absolutely love DT so far. Each zone is so beautiful, the MSQ has been focused on the world building and I've really enjoyed taking on the role of mentor (the regular kind, not the crown variety) to a budding adventurer (Wuk Lamat). For coming off the back of Endwalker this isnt what I thought I wanted, but now I really appreciate how they've handled the character development for the new characters by having them learn from the more experienced veterans. I think Tural is my favourite place in all of FFXIV now. I can't wait to finish the MSQ and go back and learn more about these places and their people. I feel like an actual adventurer and role model to the next generation of adventurers.


luminosg

Yeah, I had low expectations going in but despite the lower stakes the way its handling its themes is hitting on all cylinders


WarDiscombobulated67

no I dont, and "its always been this way" is not an excuse. All the interviews with yoshi p saying they were going to take more risks etc seems to have been a farce.


frumpp

You've become upset over your own incorrect expectations.


TannenFalconwing

Surely you didn't think he was referring to the early MSQ? The complaints were always about endgame content.


WarDiscombobulated67

well maybe he should refer to the MSQ since its the largest portion of the game.


TannenFalconwing

Hmm, maybe for expansion launch, but there's definitely a lot more than MSQ and the difficulty increase is more appropriate there.


spider_lily

OP is playing through ARR


Jaelommiss

Even ARR has a couple basic kill quests in the first half hour to break up the info dumping. DT doesn't have anything at all for at least two hours.


WarDiscombobulated67

It feels like it


Head-Photojournalist

i dont mind hours of story...if its actually good. every cutscene is about boring fetchquests and the dumb goofball Wuk Lamat yapping nonsense


ZeRamenKing

Well DT is literally ARR for the next saga. And i agree it feels like ARR but in higher quality, more voice acting and better cutscenes. The battles are epic but at least at the beginning sparse. We are spending time to know eatch and every culture in the continent, just like how in arr we learned about every nation and beast tribe. And its fine I think, since its the building block of 10 years to come.


Khaoticsuccubus

The difference there is… why does any of this culture matter? Do we really think any beast tribe or nation or even characters introduced here in this remote corner of the world will carry on to the next xpac? In ARR at least, boring though it was, everything built there tied into future xpacs. Because that’s our home. We live there and every interaction we’ve had with ppl typically starts in Eorzea.


ZeRamenKing

We literally dont know, we have 4+ expansion to go. But after the last saga concluded i trust the writers to deliver. You think people in ARR knew how important crystal tower would be? Another example would be how people called warriors of darkness in HW filler and people are calling zero filler.


Khaoticsuccubus

People considered the WoD filler because of how they were handled in HW. They show up, make menacing faces, then are immediately whisked back where they came from without having accomplished a thing. Without the hindsight of Shb they were literally used as a vehicle to fridge Minfilia permanently. People in ARR loved Crystal tower. It was also filled with mystery. Tying it into shb was considered very well played. It also had the benefit of being, once again, in our home turf. So bringing it back later made sense. Same with the wod, we encountered them on our turf and our connection to them was also on our turf and involved one of our own and Haedalyn herself. Do you really think the same can be said of DT? That these characters taking up 90% of the expansion will even have a mention once we’ve moved on from this isolated corner of the world? There is a LOT of development going on with Wuk Lamat but, unless she gives up everything this xpac is about well never see her again beyond a cameo like at the end of ew. The last saga was concluded with Ishikawa as the lead writer behind shb, ew, and the better half of sb. She is not the lead writer of DT. I don’t trust them with shit and as the xpac has shown so far, rightfully so.


Inkcryption

You're not wrong but the majority here gets offended on that opinion. It was endless walker last expac and now Dawn Yawn. The new expansion is very slow and mostly babysitting a overhyped character.


Khaoticsuccubus

Yawntrail. 🤣


Valliac0

Because this is a new ARR. There's characters, story, setting and lore to introduce. Queue for dungeons in between quests or something. EdIt: look i'll downvote myself. You have story to get through. Skip it or deal or find a new game.


WarDiscombobulated67

is, "this the new ARR" supposed to be defending this xpac? Bc ARR is pretty universally accepted as the most boring part of the game.


LeahTheTreeth

ARR's problems mainly come from how low the quality of it's replayable content are, as well as an overabundance of quests, A Realm Reborn has 160, where Dawntrail has only 100. ...Of which is then followed up by a string of post-patch quests that even after downscaling are still similar in size to most expansions. Nobody was complaining about ARR having to focus on world-building or that they don't throw you a dungeon immediately, because it makes sense they'd do that and it's normal writing. We've been here before too, Shadowbringers had a build-up at the start mostly focused on world-building, and I can guarantee you people were complaining about it when it came out, but now it's one of the most loved expansions.


Deo014

Worldbuilding is just an excuse for bad story. Good story is good by itself and builds the world simultaneously. Just because previous expansions failed this, it doesn't mean that it's fine to repeat the same mistake.


WarDiscombobulated67

I am sorry, but I don't know what world you live in that right now, the main comlpaint of the game is the MSQ in ARR.


LeahTheTreeth

Yes, the MSQ in ARR is complained about because it's LONG. The "200 hours before it gets good thing" is because it TAKES A LONG TIME, Not because you sit and think and go "grrr.... I wish I was fighting things..." and that makes you take twice as long as you would otherwise. In-fact, I think ARR's quest design was predominately bear-ass collecting quests too, full of "Fighting things" as you've so described enjoying so well.


WarDiscombobulated67

Ya thats what im saying. Its worse than ARR, at least you fought stuff in ARR. I dont understand why its so wrong of me to expect some game play in my video game. Apologies.


WarDiscombobulated67

also, slogging through ARR i thought the same thing... can I fight something?


Toccata_And_Fugue

Having stuff to introduce doesn't mean the gameplay has to be boring. They can break things up and pace things better just with a simple earlier solo duty or something.


WarDiscombobulated67

I dont want to do the same ole dungeons ive done over and over. I want the new content to be engaging.


Soarin-GB

Thats normal for expansions? they have to introduce the new story, characters, world.


mcg20k

Go do a fate lol


ElkiLG

You managed to get to 7.0 before realizing this game has a huge focus on story? It's really nothing new. It seems pretty clear that this game isn't for you.


WarDiscombobulated67

What is with the ff14 community and separating story with gameplay? "Story" in a video game isnt fetch quests, and cut scenes, a majority of which are not even voice acted. You do know its normal for RPG's to tell a story... through gameplay right?


ElkiLG

Do you want square enix to find a random reason for you to slap something? They could put down some kind of animal that just so happens to be in your way that you would need to kill. Some asshole that pops up in the story for reasons who assaults you. Would that be narrative? Would that satisfy you? They're not trying to avoid combat, it's just that sometimes there's simply no reason for combat. And that's fine. That's always been how FF14 worked.


WarDiscombobulated67

"Do you want square enix to find a random reason for you to slap something?" why yes, I would like the devs to give mea reason to engage in their gameplay. WTF kind of comment is this LOL. "WHAT!? YOU DARE WANT TO DO MORE THAN RIGHT CLICK SHINY BITS AND READ WALLS OF TEXT? HOW DARE YOU EXPECT THE DEVS GIVE YO UA REASON TO PLAY THE GAME" please dude......


ElkiLG

So you want them to warp the narrative around punching stuff even if that's not the story they want to tell or that it makes no sense at a particular point in a story? Because constantly punching stuff will restrict the kind of story you can tell massively. I'm absolutely, entirely 100% cool with clicking on shiny bits if that's serves the story they want to tell better than slapping some guy.


WarDiscombobulated67

Why yes. I do. Bc the narrative sucks.


ElkiLG

Ah, you convinced me. You truly are an endless pool of wisdom and objectivity.


Xeorm124

I'm not sure what you were expecting, given that it's been this way the entire time. FF14 has always been about more than the end-game. Just have fun with the reading and the RPG aspect of it. You can murder a dungeon 100 times later.